Chaos Trapped

by Eric T Knight

  “Can you use the word again?” Hulagu said.

  Karliss thought about it and shook his head. “I don’t think so. And there are very few aranti left in the area anyway. They’ve all fled.”

  “Then Batu is right. It’s time to go.”

  “There’s one other thing I could try,” Karliss said.

  Hulagu shook his head. “You don’t look good. It’s too risky. You’re too weak. We can still get everyone across the river.”

  “It won’t be enough,” Karliss said. “Look at the size of the fire. It’s grown way beyond any ordinary fire. I don’t think the river will stop it.”

  “You’re talking about trying the third word, aren’t you?” Batu said.

  “What other choice do I have?”

  “Run away. That’s almost always the best choice,” Batu said, then got a sour look on his face. “But you’re not going to do that, are you? You’re going to try the word anyway. Sometimes I think you’re letting this hero stuff go to your head.”

  “I don’t have time to sit here and argue about it,” Karliss said. He winced in pain as he turned and began pawing through the wagon’s contents, looking for the box where he’d stashed the parchment with the words on it.

  “It’s over there,” Nergui said, turning and pointing to one corner. “Under the sack.” Then he had to turn back to the yaks. The beasts were fighting the harness, close to panicking. “I know you can do it, Karliss!” he yelled over his shoulder. “You’re the greatest tlacti ever!”

  Karliss pulled out the parchment and studied the third word for a few seconds, moving his lips as he sounded out the word silently.

  The terl came galloping up, two warriors trailing him. “It didn’t work,” he said.

  “I got two of them,” Karliss replied. “There are still two more.”

  “Okay. We’ll abandon the wagons.” He started to give the order to the two warriors, but Karliss stopped him.

  “I’m going to try the third word.”

  Dashin shook his head. “You look beat up already. It’s too risky. We can replace wagons. We can’t replace you.”

  It felt good, hearing the terl say that. He’d staunchly defended Karliss against Henta’s attacks, but this was different somehow, more personal.

  “I have to do it. The fire’s too big now. The river won’t stop it. Even if it does, what’s to stop the riders from starting another one on the other side of the river?”

  Dashin’s face grew darker. “I hadn’t thought about that. Okay. Do it. But if it’s too much, let it go.” He looked at Karliss’ friends. “Make sure you get him out of here. No matter what.” They nodded, and he and his warriors dashed off, back toward the front of the wagon train where the first wagons were just starting to enter the river.

  Karliss stared at the third word for a few seconds longer, committing it to memory. Then he rolled up the parchment and tucked it inside his shirt. If they had to abandon the wagon, he wanted this with him.

  He took a deep breath and said the word.

  “Akuy-ken-shai-ne-haran!”

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Instantly the world changed. Karliss was stretched out, impossibly far beyond himself. There was a moment of complete disorientation, while his mind struggled to make sense of the new information it was receiving. Thousands of images and disconnected thoughts all clamored for his attention at once. The babble of a multitude of voices roared around him.

  Then it all slowed down—or he sped up—and it began to make sense. He realized he was simultaneously looking down on the world from thousands of different viewpoints. The thoughts and voices that filled his mind settled in and connected with those viewpoints.

  He had a sudden, blinding realization: This wasn’t about control. The third word didn’t give him control of the aranti.

  It made him them.

  He was every aranti everywhere.

  They were him, and he was them. Just as a simple thought would cause his finger to lift, so would a thought translate instantly into a response from the aranti.

  He was everywhere, the entire world at his fingertips.

  He stared down from his many viewpoints, utterly entranced by the variety and beauty that sprawled across this world. He looked on a desert of orange sand, vast seas of blue water, high peaks covered in snow, thick, swampy jungles, and a thousand thousand more vistas. It was so much vaster and more wonderful than he could have imagined. He raced through it all, experiencing things unimaginable, and yet at the same time completely familiar.

  How long he lost himself in it all he couldn’t have said. Time meant nothing anymore. There was no need to hurry. He could play endlessly. Nothing could stop him. Nothing could hold him.

  But there was something in the back of his thoughts, something nagging at him. He tried to push it away but couldn’t quite manage it. It kept pestering him and finally he turned his attention to it.

  When he did, he found himself looking down at a strange scene. There was a long line of slow, cumbersome wheeled contraptions that were being pulled by four-legged shaggy creatures. On the wheeled contraptions rode some of the short-lived, two-legged creatures that lived so many places on the world. They were people. A number of other people were there as well, milling about on the far side of a river. They seemed to be running from a large fire that was bearing down on them. It was actually the fire that interested him the most, and he felt the desire to race through it, to play with it. But he was stopped by a sense that there was something dangerous there as well.

  There were brethren on the other side of the fire. They were driving the fire forward. It struck him as strange that he was not them. There was some barrier between him and them. The barrier was woven with purple threads of light that frightened him and made him want to fly away. Even separated from them as he was, he could tell that they were unhappy.

  There were men riding on large birds. They were the ones forcing his brethren to push the fire. They were the ones keeping him separated from the rest of himself.

  A new emotion, one he didn’t recognize. Was it anger?

  With it came a desire to harm the ones who were controlling his brethren.

  Then something new happened. The birds climbed higher and flew over the wall of fire. They seemed to be homing in on the people riding in the wagons.

  He felt alarm. He didn’t understand it, but he felt a compelling need to protect the people in the wagons, along with those who sped about on the backs of horses.

  The men on the birds neared the last wagon in the line. They raised the staffs they were carrying and pointed them.

  He had to stop them.

  He thought tornados. Two of them, one focused on each bird.

  Towering cyclones sprang up instantly. The crows and their riders were engulfed, lifted higher and higher into the air. The force of the winds was such that feathers and clothing were torn away.

  Then he crushed them.

  Both cyclones collapsed in on themselves, all the power contained within them focused down into a tiny area. The bones of both riders and birds were crushed.

  Then he released them.

  There was a loud bang, and they exploded. Remains of birds and men drifted to the ground, the pieces no longer recognizable as having once been living creatures.

  He felt gladness.

  Once more he began drifting outwards, drawn to the myriad vistas open to him, eager to once again explore.

  There was a sharp impact. Then another one.

  He tried to move away from the impacts, but he felt frozen in place, unable to move.

  More impacts.

  All at once his vision shattered into a thousand shards, and he was falling. He hit with terrific force and opened his eyes. Something was looming over him, drawing back to strike him again.

  He cried out and tried to pull away.

  Sounds came to him. It was a voice. He knew the voice, though he couldn’t quite place it. He tried to reply, but his tongue would not form
the words that came to his mind.

  He heard another voice that he recognized. He remembered words.

  “I think he’s back now.” The speaker was Batu.

  Karliss blinked and gradually his own world came back to him. He felt scattered and distant, but the pieces were beginning to come back together and make sense.

  Batu and Hulagu were in the back of the wagon, leaning over him.

  “Karliss, can you hear me?” Hulagu asked.

  He tried to reply, but the sound that came out was more like the wind than human speech.

  “Maybe hit him again,” Batu suggested.

  “No!” Karliss managed to blurt out.

  They helped him sit up. “We thought you were gone for good,” Batu said. He sounded worried.

  Karliss turned his head. The wall of fire was gone. What remained were scattered fires, already dying out.

  “I don’t know what you did, but it worked,” Hulagu said with a small smile.

  “And, as usual, it was pretty awesome,” Batu chimed in, grinning.

  The wagon rocked as Nergui clambered up beside them. His eyes were shining. “The bird men were right there!” he cried, pointing. “I thought we were dead for sure. Then there were huge tornados out of nowhere. Two of them! The bird men went flying up into the air.” He threw his hands up, spinning them in little circles. “Then, bang! All gone.”

  “I don’t think you left enough for the vultures to eat,” Batu said.

  “But then you didn’t return,” Hulagu said.

  “There were clouds in your eyes,” Batu said. “Your voice was the wind.”

  “The wind started to blow really hard and you looked…” Hulagu faltered and looked at Batu. “Did you see it too?”

  Batu nodded. “You looked like you were fading out, disappearing right before our eyes. That’s when Hulagu acted. He jumped off his horse into the back of the wagon and started slapping you like crazy.”

  “Sorry if I hit you too hard,” Hulagu said. “I was kind of panicking.”

  Karliss touched his cheek. He could feel that his cheek was sore, but the pain was distant and didn’t really seem to belong to him.

  “It’s okay,” he said.

  “I’m glad you came back,” Nergui said. “I don’t want you to go away like Ihbarha did.”

  “That was unbelievable,” Batu said, shaking his head. “How long before Kasai figures it out, huh? Before he realizes he’s outmatched and gives up?”

  Nergui hooted with laughter. “Give up, old cranky!” he yelled. “You can’t beat Karliss!”

  He and Batu laughed and howled. Karliss went along with it, smiling, but inside he was troubled and from the look on his face, Hulagu was troubled too.

  “You lost yourself, didn’t you?” Hulagu asked.

  Karliss nodded. He felt a sudden pang, a sense of overwhelming loss. He’d felt awesome, elemental. Limitless. Like there was nothing he couldn’t do, nowhere he couldn’t go. It was intoxicating. He’d never felt so alive, so free.

  His body felt heavy and unwieldy. He hated it right then. Just as he hated Hulagu for making him come back. He hated everyone for the demands they put on him, demands that were little more than chains holding him to the earth.

  “You sure you’re okay?” Hulagu asked.

  “Yeah,” he replied, but he knew he wasn’t. He wanted to use the word again, right then. He wanted to leave and never return.

  He wasn’t sure he’d ever be okay again.

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  While they were moving the rest of the wagons across the river, a storm blew in from the north. The day quickly grew dark as massive, black banks of clouds, thick with lightning, covered up the sun. The wind picked up, and the first fat drops of rain fell.

  Near where they crossed, the river made a bend, a wide loop that wrapped around a long, low, flat-topped hillock. It had been several years since they’d camped there, since they didn’t usually come this far east. It was a good spot though. The river narrowed as it ran around the hillock, and the water was deep and swift, uncrossable except during the worst of droughts. With no fear of raids across the river, the area the sentries had to guard was much smaller.

  The wagons pulled up onto the hillock. Karliss and his friends were unloading his yurt from the wagon and Nergui was unhitching the yaks, when Henta came stalking up.

  “Once again your people were put in danger by you,” she said.

  “Hey,” Batu objected, “he just saved us from the fire. Didn’t you see that?”

  Henta whirled on him. “A fire sent by Kasai. A fire that never would have happened if not for him.” She turned back on Karliss. “This is all your fault!” She was nearly yelling by then.

  People nearby paused what they were doing, stopped by the ferocity of her words.

  “Surely, I am not the only one who sees what is happening?” she cried, looking around at the watching people. “He angered the gods. He continues to anger them.” She spun back to Karliss and pointed a bony finger at him. “You angered him. You. He won’t stop until you’re dead. How many of us will die too because of your foolish arrogance?”

  Suddenly Karliss had had enough. Something inside him snapped. He threw up one hand, palm outwards, and channeled a gust of wind. Henta was knocked down. For a moment everyone stared in shocked silence. To strike an honored elder was unheard of. It simply wasn’t done.

  But Karliss wasn’t thinking of that. He stood there, trembling, his hand still outstretched, close, so very close to unleashing another blast, one strong enough to break bones. What he felt must have shown on his face because Henta was staring up at him with wide eyes, her usual sneer gone, replaced by animal fear.

  Hulagu was the first to react. “Stop,” he said. He pushed Karliss’ hand down.

  Karliss turned on him. For a moment he did not know the person who stood there. He did not know any of them. They were foolish, earthbound creatures, and he was the wind. Within him was the desire to draw the storm gathering overhead into himself and use it to wipe away all of them in one mighty burst.

  Hulagu looked for a moment as if he would back away, but then he set his jaw and stepped closer. “Don’t do it,” he said in a low voice. “Remember who you are.”

  And then Karliss did. He blinked and shook his head. He looked down at Henta and realized what he had done. He felt sick.

  Someone helped Henta up. She looked at Karliss. “Do the right thing, boy. Leave during the night. Go away before you kill us all.” She turned and walked away, limping a little. The other people standing around went back to what they were doing, talking in whispers as they did so.

  “That was a bad idea,” Batu said. “What were you thinking?”

  Batu and Hulagu were both staring at Karliss. He rubbed his eyes. “I’m sick of listening to her.”

  “We all are,” Hulagu said. “But that…”

  “I lost it,” Karliss admitted. “I lost control of myself.”

  “It’s not just control you lost,” Hulagu said. “I saw your eyes. It wasn’t you in there.” He looked closely into Karliss’ eyes. “Is it you in there? Even now?”

  “Yes, it’s me,” Karliss said irritably. “You know that.”

  “I hope so,” Hulagu said doubtfully.

  “What happened when you used that third word?” Batu asked.

  “It’s…hard to explain. I was the aranti.”

  “You were an aranti?” Batu said, a puzzled look on his face.

  “No. I was all the aranti.”

  “And now?” Hulagu asked. “Who are you now?”

  “I’m Karliss.” But even as he said it, he didn’t feel entirely sure. Parts of him were still scattered to the far corners of the earth. He had to look down to make sure he was standing on the ground.

  There was a nearby flash of lightning, followed by the hollow boom of thunder. Hulagu looked up. “We better get your yurt set up. And quickly.”

  They were just finishing the yurt and individual rai
ndrops were turning into steady rain, when Munkhe came hurrying up, the ends of her janu flapping in the wind. Her face was grim. She took Karliss’ elbow and pulled him aside.

  “I heard what happened. You struck Henta?”

  Karliss looked away. “She got to me.”

  At first it seemed she was going to yell at him, but then the grim look faded and a look of fear replaced it. “Oh, Karliss,” she said. “What have you done?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, and was surprised—maybe a little relieved—to realize that he meant it. He wasn’t sorry for striking Henta though. He was sorry for frightening his mother. “Will they exile me for that, do you think?”

  Munkhe swallowed, blinking rapidly. “They might,” she said, her voice choked.

  “I wasn’t myself. The wind…”

  “Don’t say that,” she said, fear turning into fierceness just like that. “You’re Karliss. You’re my son. That will never change.”

  “Okay.”

  She studied him then, stared into his eyes, gauging the depth of him. She took a deep breath and nodded. “It is what it is.”

  A flash of lightning and the rain began to fall harder.

  ╬ ╬ ╬

  It was raining hard and Karliss was alone in his yurt when he heard the terl’s voice outside. He opened the flap and Dashin came in, water streaming from him. He flipped his hood back and fixed his eyes on Karliss. He had a dark look on his face.

  “Will you be a boy, or a man?” he asked.

  Karliss hesitated, surprised. “I…”

  “Your clan needs you to be a man,” Dashin said. “Not a boy who loses his temper and strikes an old woman.”

  Karliss felt the flush of shame in his cheeks, and for the first time he felt bad about what he’d done.

  “She will use this to turn the clan against you,” the terl said. “She will have you exiled. Do you understand me? This can’t happen. I can’t protect my people without your help.”

  “Maybe Kasai will leave you alone if I’m gone.”

  “I don’t believe that, and neither do you. You know what happened to Long-striding Antelope Clan.”

  “I won’t let it happen again,” Karliss said. “I won’t let her get to me next time.”